Crimson Sands of Time

Quote from Scott_R_Simmons >>

Uriel:

Uriel stays with the kids and candy sellers outside, keeping an eye out for any returning redcaps or other threats.

 Kids ran off into the woods, but there's more in the house 

Quote from Burgen_Badluk >>

Drain,

Drain will have the set of keys on him.  Assuming he joins the others and the kids are still chained he will see if he can unlock them.  He is going to ask the children about the Unicorn.   "So little ones, we are wondering if you know the location of a unicorn, perhaps one that is imprisoned?  Or the location of a unicorn horn."

 

 

 It's just Mishka in chains, because she escaped twice already. 

And no, none if the other children knows anything about unicorns, except maybe what you know of the one that's at the lake now alone, but ine part of a pair.

As you return through the window to find the kids, you first enter the room to which the boggles and Cradlefall retreated.

Ten brightly painted structures resembling little wooden houses line the walls of this room. Each small house has a three-foot-high hinged door. All of the doors are open. These were designed for the tin soldiers that you defeated. 

A narrow staircase ascends the circular wall.

Near the foot of the stairs is a painted wooden box three feet on a side. A crank protrudes from one side of it, causing it to resemble an oversized jack-in-the-box.

If you check the box, you'll find it empty. Heading up the stairs you find the two children Picollo met, the dwarf recovering from poisoning, the older boy tending him.

The door to the balcony leads down to the garden where the shambling mound is raging as Picollo looks on, so you head back down the stairs and continue north through the hallway.

Three doors in this chamber are closed but not locked. 

Moths cluster around a lantern that hangs from the ceiling in the middle of a hallway, casting flitting shadows on the walls. The hall contains three sliding doors along the walls, and a heavier hinged door stands at the opposite end.

The three cupboards, accessed by sliding the doors open, hold workshop supplies, boxes of junk, and other mundane bric-a-brac.

Opening the cupboard releases the moths which fly toward the nearest light, in their characteristic ally unnerving dashing, ro reveal a small creature completely encased in silk.  The cocoon starts to writhe and soon workers from within a small girl with gray skin wearing a pig mask and holding an oversize lollipop.  "What's rhe big idea, disturbing my beauty rest? Does Granny need something?"

(How long do you want to look through the junk in the cabinets?)

Also, if you ask any if the children where they might find the other children, they'll tell you where they are.

Drain,

Drain will have the set of keys on him.  Assuming he joins the others and the kids are still chained he will see if he can unlock them.  He is going to ask the children about the Unicorn.   "So little ones, we are wondering if you know the location of a unicorn, perhaps one that is imprisoned?  Or the location of a unicorn horn."

currently traveling in Saudi with limited access....

So then we gather up all the children. "Let's keep them together and try and protect them."

Trisk tries to take on the airs of a school teacher guiding a class.

To get to the rest of the kids and meet up with Drain and Sam he'd have ro pass through a round room with three doors and a wood-carved staircase that ascends to a higher level. The walls are a dense tangle of tree roots and brambles, nestled among which are five animated portraits: one of a svelte, dark-haired woman and the others depicting hags.

Three hags you've met before, in the castle, the fourth is truly ancient and terrifying. 

Each portrait magically animates to create the impression that the subject is looking around and shifting uncomfortably, but the animation has the quality of an old movie. The moving images are silent.

<FYI I think I'm waiting on players. If I haven't adequately addressed someone's position or action, let me know. Yiure in separate areas and it makes it a little harder for me to keep track plus I wanted to make sure you're not waiting on me right now.>

Piccolo is happy following along with the children. She completely blends in, playing with them and impulsive, taking Trisks lead. At the same time, she is keenly aware of her surroundings.  She also gets the mound, her new friend additional food.  She seems very happy.  
(does piccolo recognize any of the images on the wall, especially the very old witch)

She easily recognizes the three hags from the castle and more recently the room down the hall of this, her home. But not the other two.  As she moves through the room, she feels the prick of a thorn.  Suddenly all the portraits vanish and in their place appear... <@Shimshon, you finish it>

On the walls, three pictures appear, while one is not blank

At this point ,Picollo would surmise, (presumably) knowing (or at least suspecting) her own relationship with the others pictured, that the portraits they saw at first must have been the hag's family.

This could be useful information.

That ghoul girl is named Sowpig, by the way. She's going to follow you around for a bit. How long were you planning on looking through the cabinets where you found her?

Also, the portrait room has a door to the north, towards the kitchen, one to the south, where Sowpig was resting, and a third that exits to the west.  In addition, if you're rounding up children, you could have been told by Mishka or Chucklehead of those working in the textile production facility (a.k.a. the Loom Room) just up the stairs from the portrait gallery, and more in the room that's not quite hidden, but not exactly obvious halfway up the stairs to where the poisoned dwarf boy lies in recovery. This is the sewing room.

So, What are we doing?

Searching cabinets,

Loom room,

sewing room,

mystery door

Or just leave, I guess.

Not sure where everyone else is except Trisk. Piccolo is VERY curious and will search the cabinets, looking for whatever she finds. Then she will open the mystery door and peak in. The Sowpig, she will play a brief sad tune on her instrument

After a full fifteen minutes if scouring the cabinets, you come across an oddly shaped object.  

Through the door you find yourself outside, again, near the garden, but in a spot obscured from view earlier by the tree root that now stands to your right. Not only did it block your view of the door, but also a bix similar to the one Cradlefall crawled out of and the empty one Dam also found, as well as the rocking horse on which Skabatha flew away from the castle.

Creaking softly, a rocking horse moves back and forth near the door. Peeling paint covers its limbs, and its rocker is thick with moss. A rictus grin is painted on its face. Picollo also notices a depression on its forehead.

Piccolo will examine the depression in the head (unicorn horn?) and look around the room for something that could fit, or something she has already recovered.
She will also sit on the horse and see if it does anything. (Is the odd shaped thing an instrument?

I guess you could try blowing in it.

If the strange thing has a hole on both ends (like a horn), she will give it a try as an instrument and see what happens. If both ends are sealed, she will take it and put it in her bag.